1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to agricultural apparatus and, more particularly, to appartus for the reception of bales of hay or other fodder as the bales are produced by a baler during its travel across the field and to apparatus for the transport of the bales in stacks to the place of use or storage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional hay-baling operations, the baler, during its movement across the field, deposits the bales on the field as produced, the individual bales thereafter being manually picked up from the field and loaded on a suitable transport means by which they are conveyed to the storage area where they are manually unloaded and stacked. Such operations are laborious and time-consuming. Numerous attempts have been made to develop equipment which would perform some or all of these tasks, but such equipment generally has been undesirably complicated, expensive and costly to maintain and operate. For example, trailers have been built that are adapted to be towed by hay balers, the trailers directly receiving the bales from the baler and mechanically accumulating the bales in the form of a stack. However, in these known constructions, the stacks of bales are discharged onto the field for later pick-up which is performed in some instances by special types of fork lift apparatus.
Apparatus of the above-mentioned type is typified, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. to Gale 3,155,415, issued Nov. 3, 1964. This patent disclosed a sled-type bale accumulator drawn by the baling machine, the acumulator including a platform mounted for rocking movement between horizontal and rearwardly tipped positions. The bales are stacked on the platform while it is in a horizontal position, the first or lower layer of bales being placed in spaced parallel relationship to provide gaps therebetween. When the stack is completed, the platform is rocked to deposit the stack on the field. For the removal of the stack, a fork lift apparatus, which is carried by a tractor and which has tines for insertion in the gaps between the bales of the lower layer and also for positioning adjacent the outer sides of the outermost bales of said layer, the tines carrying special mechanisms having prongs for insertion into the bales of the lower layer, and also carrying support means for the overlying layers, is employed. Following the positioning of the tines as mentioned above and the operation of the mechanism to insert the prongs, the fork lift is elevated to lift the stack off the field and the stack is then transported to the storage point by the tractor.
As will be recognized, the fact that the bales must first be deposited on the field, which, due to unevenness of the terrain, may well shift the bales of the lower layer from their required positions, is an undesirable feature. Also, because the bales of the lower layer must be spaced apart, the stack, when delivered to the point of storage, is not of the desired compactness. Furthermore, the mechanisms as mentioned above to secure the elevation of the stack from the field are relatively complicated and expensive.